Flipping the classroom is not a panacea

Tekst Yvonne van de Meent - redactie Onderwijsblad - 6 januari 2020 - 8 Minuten om te lezen

picture: Type tank

Flipping the classroom conquers higher education. In the US, half of the universities are already working with the educational approach whereby students study new subject matter prior to class so that contact time can be used to discuss, apply and deepen the knowledge acquired. Although not a requirement, the self-study almost always takes place online and is therefore a form of blended learning.

Small scale

In the Netherlands there is no longer a university or college that does nothing at all about flipping the classroom or blended learning. Utrecht University (UU) is at the forefront of this. Five years ago, the Educate-it innovation program was launched that encourages teachers to replace traditional lectures with a combination of online learning and small-scale face-to-face learning. Teachers don't have to do anything, but if they want to change their education, a small army of technical and educational support staff is ready to help them on their way.

Knowledge Clip

Educate-it is catching on. Perhaps this is best reflected in the popularity of the knowledge clip *Knowledge clips History teachers who want to flip their lessons should take a look before they get started Jort history, advises David van Alten. Since 2011, Joost van Oort, history teacher at Agora in Roermond, has been posting the videos he makes for his own students in the upper years of HAVO and VWO on that YouTube channel. There are now hundreds of them and they have already been viewed 25 million times. On the website educate-it- for inspiration you can find examples of different types of knowledge clips, including one video lesson about making such a clip. There is also a webinar by Johan van Strien about knowledge clips. In it, he explains, based on a number of international studies, what makes a knowledge clip effective. . Four out of ten UU lecturers now use those short instructional videos in which one clearly defined topic is discussed in five or ten minutes. They are usually used as preparation for the lessons. They are often existing clips, but they can also be home-made videos. Last academic year, UU lecturers made more than XNUMX knowledge clips in one of the Utrecht University Do it yourselfstudios.

Does flipping live up to its promises in practice?

In theory, flipping the classroom leads to greater student involvement. During a traditional lecture, a teacher has the floor and there is usually little opportunity to ask questions. Students are forced to follow the pace of the teacher. When watching a knowledge clip, they can stop and rewind the video if they misunderstood something. And of course they can see where and when it suits them. During the 'crazy' lessons, students are then actively engaged in applying knowledge and there is much more interaction with the teacher and fellow students. That would lead to better learning outcomes. But does flipping also live up to those promises in practice?

Sunny

The sunny answer is yes, according to a publication by PhD student David van Alten published at the end of last year. Together with colleagues from Utrecht University, he analyzed 114 scientific studies into the 'reversed lesson'. This shows that flipping leads to better learning results. But whether the effect is big enough to turn education upside down is a bit of the question. “On average, students who followed a 'crazy course' score 0,2 to 0,3 points higher on a test than the control group,” says Van Alten. “But those averages are actually not that interesting because the results differ greatly per study. That probably has to do with the way flipping is done. ”

Quizzes increase the learning effect

Unfortunately, scientific publications do not always explain how flipping is tackled, which is why it is difficult to find out what is in practice what works and what doesn't *Tips for crazy lessons Make the lecture or lesson interactive with quizzes. Zet shorten teaching time differently, but do not shorten it. Add incentives to a knowledge clip to make students think. Make not all movies themselves. There are plenty of ready-to-use instructional videos. Let online learning and physical lectures are a good match. .

But there are two factors that make a clear difference, Van Alten discovered. “Quizzes that allow you to check what a student has remembered from the knowledge clip at the start of a lesson increase the learning effect. You can perform those quizzes in hundreds of ways. During a lecture with XNUMX students you can work with voting equipment. But in a high school class you can also place a painting that appears in the knowledge clip and ask questions about it. As long as the lesson becomes interactive and pupils actively participate. ”

You have to use the teaching time differently

Cutting back on teaching time when introducing flipping has a negative effect on learning outcomes. Van Alten: “In higher education, it is often thought that if you actively encourage students to study independently, you will have to give fewer lectures. But our analyzes show very clearly that you have to use teaching time differently, but not shorten it. "

Flipping, in combination with the reduction of teaching hours, leads to a drop in final grades

This is bad news for eLearning supporters who hoped that flipping could help solve the teacher shortage. “A recent Dutch study in the lower years of secondary education shows that flipping in combination with a reduction in class hours leads to a decrease in the final grades,” says Van Alten. "The researchers suspect that these young students are not yet taking sufficient responsibility for their learning process."

entertainment

David van Alten is one of ten 'promodocs' appointed by the UU in 2015. As a starting teacher, he teaches two days a week and spends three days a week on his doctoral research. The idea is that the promodocs bridge the gap between educational research and practice. Van Alten does this by flipping a series of lessons about industrialization in the 19th century at Cals College in Nieuwegein, where he teaches history. And to investigate how that 'turning around' works out.

You have to explain to young people how to watch an educational film

“Most of the research into flipping has been done in higher education, because it is most commonly applied there. But if you work with fourteen and fifteen-year-olds, you obviously have to approach flipping differently. I investigate how you can help students develop their self-regulation. ” Van Alten has therefore enriched his knowledge clips about steam engines and child labor with reflection questions and viewing instructions. “You have to explain to young people how to watch an educational video. That they have to sit in a quiet place, put their phone away and take notes, for example. ” Whether this enrichment is a success remains to be seen from the analyzes.

Start button

“It is also not obvious for students to watch a video with concentration, take notes and rewind once if they do not understand it immediately,” says Johan van Strien, who led a study into the use of knowledge clips in the University of Utrecht. “If they press the start button, you don't have a guarantee that they will record the information. You have to prevent them from hanging in the amusement mode. There must be incentives in a knowledge clip to make students think. ” By asking questions before and during the clip, students remember information better, research shows. And at the start of a lesson, making an inventory of what students have learned from the knowledge clip is a must, says the doctor in education.

Myth

Until December 1, Van Strien was an educational advisor at Utrecht University and is now part of a team at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Erasmus University that learning innovation. Van Strien is 'in a positive way' skeptical about blended learning. In his view, lecturers reach for a knowledge clip too easily. “The digital vanguard embracing the knowledge clip assumes that videos automatically enrich learning. But it is a myth that we are dealing with an image-thinking generation that learns automatically by watching an instructional film. ”

You shouldn't use technology for technology's sake

“Of course videos and IT tools can promote learning,” says the educationalist. “But the initial question must be: what problem do I want to solve? You shouldn't use technology for the sake of technology. It must improve learning and that requires a didactic redesign of a course. The online preparation can provide more depth during the lessons, but then online learning and the physical lectures must be very well connected. ”

Panacea

David van Alten thinks flipping the classroom is certainly worthwhile. "But it is not a panacea." Flipping is quite a challenge for teachers. “With a knowledge clip for home you are far from there, it also requires a completely different way of teaching. That's why I always say: don't make all those videos yourself. You can better spend your time developing activating lessons. There are plenty of ready-to-use instructional videos that you can use. ”

Don't make all those videos yourself

But even if you use existing knowledge clips, flipping requires an enormous amount of time and secondary education teachers do not have that, Van Alten knows. “I therefore wonder whether colleagues at Cals College will continue to freak out once my research has been completed. Whether it has the oil stain effect that I expected when I started. There is a lot of enthusiasm about flipping, but a school-wide project on formative testing is currently underway and my colleagues already have their hands full with that. ”